A Beautiful Blue Death never quite realizes its promise. The setting and the author's use of language is what drew me to request a review copy from NetGalley in the first place, but that language use ended up annoying me. Tedious detail became the rule and really bogged down the plot. While at first I enjoyed plunging myself into a vividly sketched Victorian era crime in London I would have preferred that the author devote himself to fully sketching the time and place in the early chapters and then start focusing on plot and character development. Instead we had excruciating detail of every mundane daily activity Lenox did while the characters were given scant consideration.

Once I got past my stylistic differences I found the book interesting enough for a pleasant diversion and so I rate it 3 stars.